Wendy Lecker: A town doing it the right way

Published 5:36 pm, Friday, January 11, 2013

We have a winner! In my last column, I made a simple plea for one Connecticut superintendent to speak out about the dangers of Connecticut's over-emphasis on high-stakes standardized testing.

Diane Ravitch, the nationally noted author, education historian and former Assistant Secretary of Education, posted my column on her blog and one courageous superintendent stood up -- Thomas Scarice, of Madison. The story of how Superintendent Scarice and his community crafted the district's recommendations for its teacher evaluation plan is a model of how education policy should be made. In Madison, the process and results reflected a consensus of the entire community and a focus on what children need.

Soon after becoming superintendent, and after speaking with faculty at each school, Scarice held a retreat for all district administrators. The purpose of the retreat was to determine to what extent Madison's schools are preparing students for the world they will enter when they graduate. The group reviewed literature on how the world has changed and what skills children need to succeed today, and developed a draft vision statement. After receiving the school board's input and approval, they then received community input through a variety of public meetings, culminating in an Education Summit in late November. My conversation with board members confirmed that the district vision truly emanated from the community's aspirations for its children.

The vision statement commits the district to "educating citizens who contribute productively and humanely in a complex, global society." The district's work aims to help students develop skills such as critical and creative thinking; identifying and solving problems; ethical and responsible decision-making; and the ability to respond to both success and failure in a changing world; skills not measured on standardized tests. The vision also stresses that learning should be joyful. As one board member said, "We want to take that joy of learning kindergarteners come in with and stop stamping it out of them as they progress to 12th grade."

Concurrently, the district sought volunteer educators and administrators to develop a teacher evaluation plan that adhered to the core principles of the recent state legislation. But one component of the state's proposed teacher evaluation plan is Value Added Measurement (VAM), a highly controversial system that uses student test scores in part to rate teachers' effectiveness. The 45-member advisory council studied three areas: the efficacy of VAM, the impact of VAM on teachers and students and the impact of VAM on the quality of education. The overarching guiding principle was the goal of preparing Madison's students to succeed in our complex world.

After reviewing extensive research, the council concluded that VAM is unstable, unreliable and of questionable validity. To the council, "[s]tudent learning is too central to our beliefs to rely on unreliable data when making decisions." This conclusion is consistent with the vast body of research on VAM. Just last month, the American Institute of Research joined the growing chorus of educational experts in advising against using VAM in any high-stakes situation precisely because of its many flaws.

The council found that VAM has a destructive effect on both students and teachers. The narrow focus on standardized test scores heightens anxiety and leads to children who are less creative, expressive and excited to learn. VAM also negatively impacts two essential components of effective instruction: teacher collaboration, and the ability to meet individual students' needs. Furthermore, the council determined from the research that VAM's focus on test scores is detrimental to a quality education because it narrows the curriculum and marginalizes the development of the skills Madison decided were vital to successful life outcomes, such as critical thinking, problem solving and ethical decision-making.

The council developed a white paper concluding that VAM, with its focus on a narrow view of student performance, would prevent the district from reaching its goals for its children. Accordingly, the paper recommended an option provided in state guidelines: developing a "customized" teacher evaluation plan that will meet the "overarching purpose of the state's evaluation system."

The white paper was presented to the community and was widely endorsed.

Where the state was doing it wrong, elevating ideology over child welfare and divisive rhetoric over evidence, Madison did it right. Officials examined the research, then built understanding and consensus among educators, parents and politicians. As our political system becomes increasingly polarized and dysfunctional, the people of Madison, Democrats and Republicans, discovered that when one focuses on what is best for children, community cohesion and quality education are compatible. Our state leaders should take note.